“The wind is not helpless for any man's need,
Nor falleth the rain but for thistle and weed.”
Love is Enough (1872), Song II: Have No Thought for Tomorrow
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William Morris 119
author, designer, and craftsman 1834–1896Related quotes
“If it rains, let it rain, if the wind blows, let it blow.”
As quoted in The Essence of Zen : Zen Buddhism for Every Day and Every Moment (2002) by Mark Levon Byrne, p. 28.
Context: From the world of passions returning to the world of passions:
There is a moment's pause.
If it rains, let it rain, if the wind blows, let it blow.
Source: What Men Live By (1881), Ch. XII
Context: And the angel's body was bared, and he was clothed in light so that eye could not look on him; and his voice grew louder, as though it came not from him but from heaven above. And the angel said:
I have learnt that all men live not by care for themselves, but by love.
It was not given to the mother to know what her children needed for their life. Nor was it given to the rich man to know what he himself needed. Nor is it given to any man to know whether, when evening comes, he will need boots for his body or slippers for his corpse.
I remained alive when I was a man, not by care of myself, but because love was present in a passer-by, and because he and his wife pitied and loved me. The orphans remained alive, not because of their mother's care, but because there was love in the heart of a woman a stranger to them, who pitied and loved them. And all men live not by the thought they spend on their own welfare, but because love exists in man.
I knew before that God gave life to men and desires that they should live; now I understood more than that.
I understood that God does not wish men to live apart, and therefore he does not reveal to them what each one needs for himself; but he wishes them to live united, and therefore reveals to each of them what is necessary for all.
I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love.
A forsaken Garden.
Undated
"A Place to Rest"
Poetry, Miscellaneous poems
“Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.”
17th century proverb
Misattributed
“Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain”
Sonnet XXX from Fatal Interview (1931)
Context: Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
Source: Earthsea Books, Tehanu (1990), Chapter 4, "Kalessin"